Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Although it’s been over a decade since game-changing curative drugs for hepatitis C were approved, progress has been slow and treatment remains out of reach for many. But one small clinic in Buffalo, New York, is proving that doesn’t have to be the case.Hepatitis C is a silent epidemic in the U.S., affecting up to 4 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people don’t know they have it. Left untreated, the disease can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer.With a model that’s faster, more accessible and remarkably effective, La Bodega, a clinic at Erie County Medical…

Health officials are warning of a rise in potentially deadly “flesh-eating” bacteria cases along the Gulf Coast, with Louisiana reporting higher numbers than usual this summer.Louisiana health officials have reported 17 cases of Vibrio vulnificus so far this year — four of which have resulted in death. That compares to an average of seven cases and one death in the same period over the past 10 years. All 17 cases in Louisiana resulted in the person being hospitalized, the Louisiana Department of Health said.Meanwhile, health officials in Florida confirmed 13 cases and four deaths this year.ABC News – PHOTO: Dr.…

PERRY, N.Y. (AP) — As a student in western New York’s rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn’t part of his plan.Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county’s Arts Council. If that doesn’t turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the “cookie factory” for the way it makes the town…

Lina Kahn is having an “I told you so” moment.The former FTC chair celebrated Figma’s stellar IPO in an X post on Friday, nodding at the larger movement, including her own efforts, to block major tech mergers.”A great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought up by existing giants, can generate enormous value,” Khan, who led the FTC from 2021 to 2025, said. “A win for employees, investors, innovation, and the public.”Figma went public on Thursday, valued at $19.3 billion, and closed at 250% above its asking price, valuing the design company at nearly…

Reigning 100-meter world champion Sha’Carri Richardson was arrested last weekend for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Richardson was arrested Sunday on a fourth degree domestic violence offense, according to the police report obtained by The Associated Press. On Thursday, she ran in the opening round the women’s 100 meters at U.S. track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon. She has an automatic bye to the world championships in September in Tokyo as the defending champion.The 25-year-old Richardson was booked into the South Correctional Entity (SCORE) in Des Moines, Washington, at 6:54 p.m. last Sunday and released…

Multiple medical groups say they have been barred from working on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s panel of vaccine advisers.It comes weeks after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the original panel of independent experts and replaced them with his own handpicked members — many of whom have expressed skeptical views on vaccines.Liaisons representing major medical groups were historically invited to meetings of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) as non-voting members to provide their independent expertise in respective fields. In a joint statement, the groups said they have now been excluded “from…

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A law school graduate collapsed while taking the bar exam in a New York City suburb this week, prompting an emergency response as other aspiring lawyers worked on their exams. But some Reddit users claiming they were among the test-takers Wednesday say they’re upset the exam wasn’t halted outright.Hofstra University spokesperson Terry Coniglio said Friday that the test-taker collapsed shortly before a scheduled lunch break at the Long Island campus.Hofstra Public Safety officers immediately provided life saving emergency care, including CPR and defibrillation, until paramedics arrived and transported them to a local hospital, she said.The New…

Summer heat, outdoor fun … and cold and flu symptoms?The three may not go together in many people’s minds: partly owing to common myths about germs and partly because many viruses really do have lower activity levels in the summer.But it is possible to get the sniffles — or worse — in the summer. Federal data released Friday, for example, shows COVID-19 is trending up in many parts of the country, with emergency department visits up among people of all ages.Here’s what to know about summer viruses.How much are colds and flu circulating right now?The number of people seeking medical…

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have told more than a half-dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations.The government told the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.“I’m concerned and distressed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups.He said the…

Childhood vaccination rates for the 2024-25 school year fell for the fifth year in a row, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Thursday.Vaccine coverage for shots that protect against measles, polio, chickenpox, whooping cough and hepatitis B have now been under 95% — a threshold many experts consider herd immunity — since at least the 2020-2021 school year.Exemptions for vaccines also hit a record high, increasing to 3.6% for the 2024-25 school year compared to 3.3% during the previous school year. The number of kindergarteners exempt from one or more vaccines was about…